APRIL 10, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 14

Milestones
By PENNY CAMPBELL

DIED. IAN DURY, 57, punk icon whose cockney lyrics and bawdy humor propelled his band The Blockheads to the top of the British charts in the late 1970s; in London. Left with a severe limp by a childhood attack of polio, Dury challenged the rock-star stereotype. His 1977 album New Boots and Panties became a landmark of the era. His career enjoyed a resurgence in the second half of the 1990s and, although diagnosed with cancer in 1996, he released a successful album two years later.

DIED. ALEX COMFORT, 80, anarchist, scientist, novelist, poet and advocate of sexual freedom, whose 1972 book The Joy of Sex made him a household name; in Oxfordshire, England. Comfort publicly regretted his celebrity as a sex author (Joy has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and made him a wealthy man), saying he preferred to be remembered for his other accomplishments. The author of 51 books, Comfort had dazzling scientific and literary careers and was renowned for his anti-establishment politics.

ELECTED. UDAY HUSSEIN, 35, eldest son of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, as a member of the country's parliament; in Baghdad. The election marks a new departure for Uday, a playboy with a penchant for violence who has accumulated many powerful positions in the Iraqi media and sporting worlds. His status as one-time heir apparent to his father was undermined in 1996, when an assassination attempt left him seriously injured.

ARRESTED. MOHAMMAD "BOB" HASAN, 69, former Indonesian cabinet minister and one of ex-President Suharto's closest cronies, on allegations that he defrauded the state of $87 million in connection with a reforestation fund; in Jakarta. During the Suharto era, Hasan turned his near-monopoly over the lucrative timber trade into a huge personal fortune. This is the first arrest of a member of the former President's inner circle and may signal a new seriousness on the part of the government in its investigation of the financial dealings of Suharto and his allies.

RESIGNED. SANAN KACHORNPRASART, 64, as Thailand's Interior Minister, amid charges of corruption; in Bangkok. Sanan, a chief fixer for Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai's Democrat Party, resigned after the National Counter Corruption Commission alleged that he falsified a 1997 declaration of his assets. The resignation marks a step forward in Thailand's reform process but is a major blow for the party, which has tried to present itself as a clean alternative in national politics.

APPEAL DENIED. To EUGENE TERRE' BLANCHE, 56, South African neo-Nazi sentenced to a year in jail for assaulting a black petrol pump attendant in 1996; in Bloemfontein. Terre' Blanche, leader of the far right Afrikaner Resistance Movement, which opposed the transition to majority rule and threatened to destabilize the country in the runup to the 1994 democratic elections, now has to serve out the full sentence.

Twin Sets
DOUBLE DUTY Eng and Chang may be Siam's most famous twins, but Thailand has a lot of pairs vying for attention: Aree and Naree Wongluekiet, 13, scratch golfers and identical twins, last month became the second youngest players to compete in the LPGA. Brothers Johnny and Luther Htoo, mystical preteen rebel leaders, who live in hiding along the Burmese-Thai border, made headlines this winter when their militia turned a Thai hospital into a giant hostage ward. Sonchat and Sonchai Ratiwatana, tennis-doubles champs, got to the finals in last month's Malaysian International Junior tourney. And according to the Bangkok Post, identical twins Suchart and Suchai Jaovisidha will retire this year from their respective posts as Thailand's directors general of revenue and internal trade.